EC takes legal action against telecoms directive laggards

The European Commission (EC) has begun taking legal action against 20 EU member states that have not yet notified the Commission of measures they are taking to turn new telecoms rules into national law.

The deadline for implementation of the rules was 25 May 2011.

The telecoms directive was passed to update the rights of businesses and consumers regarding mobile phone use, mobile services and internet access.

These updates include the right to more clarity about services and better protection of data online.

Only seven member states, the UK being one of them, have informed the EC that the rules have been implemented in full. Twenty member states have not yet notified the commission of measures to implement the rules and these countries have two months to provide the EC with sufficient detail.

The countries involved are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

If any of the member states fail to reply to the EC, or if the EC is not satisfied with any response given, then the matter may be referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Matthew Howett, analyst at Ovum, explained that this announcement shouldn't come as a surprise. "I think that this is entirely expected. If you look at the transposition of the previous telecoms framework in 2002/03, there was an equally long list of countries not implementing the rules," said Howett.

"This process can drag on for years, and there are always the traditional offenders who do it very late, not properly, or not at all. It's not surprising to see countries like Belgium offending – they are notorious for holding back on this sort of thing," he added.

Howett explained that when the last EU telecoms rules were passed down to member states, it took up to three years for some countries to implement the changes.

He also said that delayed implementation will mean that businesses and consumers aren't benefitting from important regulatory change.

"If countries don't comply, the EC will go through its usual procedure. It will send a warning letter, it could launch an infringement proceeding against the government of the country involved and, ultimately, there could be a fine," said Howett.

"The worrying thing is that there are important measures contained within this package and people can't take advantage of these until the countries put the rules in place."